Marc Andreessen Joins Facebook Board

In early May, Kara Swisher reported that Netscape co-founder Marc Andreessen was going to join Mark Zuckerberg, Peter Thiel, and Jim Breyer on Facebook's board of directors. She was right: TechCrunch reports today that Andreessen has joined Facebook's board, and says an announcement could come as soon as this week. Andreessen will remain chairman of Ning, a social networking startup that, to some extent, competes with Facebook. TechCrunch:

Andreessen joins Facebook at a crucial time in its growth. Competitors MySpace and (increasingly) Google are gunning for control of the social graph, which may be the engine that drives the next big growth wave in advertising. Several early Facebook executives have left this year as the company has evolved, and new executives have taken their places. Zuckerberg needs a trusted guy in his corner to help him avoid missteps like the launch of Beacon last year, which has led to serious privacy concerns. Andreessen has fought similar battles in the past and won, and his counsel is clearly a competitive advantage.